No show chilli Wednesday

11^th November

It’s Veterans Day today so all the flags throughout the city (which is a lot) are all at half mast. They have been for the past few days actually but I think this ismainly due to the shootings at the military base at Fort Hood, Texas. Presumably you all heard about this back home but for those of you that haven’t, an army psychiatrist opened fire on his colleagues at the base and killed 13 soldiers and wounded about 30. He was stopped when someone shot him but they didn’t kill him despite the fact he’ll probably get the death penalty with it being in Texas. Unfortunately it’s also kicked up the terrorism debate again as he is a Muslim and seems to have links with radical clerics.

Anyway, went up to Capitol Hill today and learnt a bit about American politics which is slightly less baffling now, probably should have done that at the start of my trip. Went to a couple more museums and had a look at the Whitehouse. I was going to knock on the door and ask whether Obama was playing but didn’t think that joke would go down to well with the 50 or so armed police circling the lawn. Besides he was busy today so I’ve said he can come round to mine for tea next week.

Chilli Wednesday at the hostel was sadly a no show due to a lack of people to actually make the chilli. Was pretty impressed however, when they turned up with about 10 pizzas and a load of cupcakes instead. Can’t argue with that!